Economy

[Eladris]

Does anyone else hate the standard D&D coinage and proposed economy?  Seriously, if an unskilled worker gets paid 1sp per day, they could not even afford to buy food for themselves.  Even at Profession roll / 2 gold pieces per week I have difficulty imagining that an artisan could provide for himself and a family after the cost of supplies, tool maintenance and taxes.

I implemented a different currency system in my own games, one which my players now prefer after initial difficulties doing conversions.  The following coins exist in my game:

Coin	My equivalent	D&D equivalent
copper half-penny (chp)	0.5 cp	5 cp
copper penny (cp)	1 cp	1 sp
copper mark (cm)	10 cp	1 gp
silver half-penny (shp)	50 cp	5 gp
silver penny (sp)	100 cp	10 gp
silver mark (sm)	1000 cp	100 gp
gold penny (gp)	10000 cp	1000 gp
gold mark (gm)	100000 cp	10000 gp

The copper penny and copper mark are the most common coins circulated, with silver pennies following close on their heels.  Gold pennies are generally only used by wealthy merchants and nobles, while gold marks cross the palms of only the wealthiest men and women in the world.

Standard wages in my worlds are generally 1-2 copper marks a day, depending on the job.  The system has worked out very well so far and, honestly, I'm happy that gold coins don't outnumber silver or copper in terms of what the players use to pay for goods.  Even when buying or crafting magical items they deal largely in silver marks -- thought they've had a few gold pennies from a dragon hoard or two.

What do others do to make their economies more feasible -- if anything?

[Stargate525]

What do others do to make their economies more feasible -- if anything?

I like your system, but to be honest I imagine the conversion being a bit of a pain.

In most of my games, I add a couple more types of currency in, such as a mithril peice, or an adamantium peice. I also make liberal use of bank notes, ingots, and promisory notes. (that gives some interesting quests, especially if you give them a note for a bank that now exists under a different name.)

I like your method though, and I might just stick a couple of those into mine.

[CYMRO]

From my Altvogge CS:

COINAGE

   The five major lending houses control the coinage of most nations.  The Numismasters of these Houses maintain the integrity of the coinage composition and issue letters of credit that are recognized in the nations contracted with that House.  Some large Empires maintain relationships with more than one Lending House.   The names of the Houses contracted to each nation are listed in that nation's coinage entry.   Bills of Credit are easily negotiated in nations that are contracted to at least one of the Super Five.
   Many minor nations mint their own coinage or use a minor local lending house, but such coins are usually have lower value in major nations than those from the Super Five.  These nationsâ,¬,,¢ coinage is listed as INFERIOR.    Bills of Credit are difficult to trade in these nations.
      Some nations do not even mint coinage, nor do they try to control the money passing through their borders.   Inflation and counterfeiting can be rampant in these countries and Bills of Credit are useless in these nations.    These nationsâ,¬,,¢ coinage is listed as NONE.
   Besides the issuing of Bills of Credit, the coinage issued by the individual Houses is listed below.

House of Benthir
Platinum:   Ducat
Gold:   Florin
Silver:  Talar
Copper:   Punt

House of Ginkoa
Platinum:  Jo
Gold:   Kinn
Silver:   Gin
Copper:  Do

House of Glannizy
Platinum:   Glan
Gold:   Zolat
Silver:   Hop
Copper:  Plat

House of Peza
Platinum:   Dompet
Gold:   Ora
Silver:   Parak
Copper:   Med

House of Urtha
Platinum:   Nakir
Gold:   Kult
Silver:   Ebir
Copper:     Rama



As for wages, I prefer to use real world examples from the Age of Enlightenment, with the silver piece doing serrvice as the base of the currency.  

[Wensleydale]

I'm working out my monetary system, but at present, I'm thinking salt and other minerals for lower forms of wealth, and then Denarii for the Aequii states and other forms of currency in the Numidi nations.

[Xeviat]

Workers who earn one sp a day are unskilled workers, meaning workers who have no ranks in craft or profession. Due to the current Commoner class, I think such characters should be few and far between.

Even still, the PHB or DMG states that these workers are subsitance workers. The 1 sp a day is used to buy things they can't make themselves, otherwise they have a small farm to feed their family. We're talking about a feudal system here, and the vast majority of commoners are going to be farmers.

This really gets me thinking on the system of commoners in general, but that's for another thread.